Water From The Moon
by EnjoyTheCarnage
Summary: Do I gotta get water from the moon? Is that what I gotta do to make you love me? Do I gotta turn the sand into the sea? Is that what you want from me? I've done everything that I can do, but get water from the moon...
1. Water From The Moon

**AN:/ Never in a million years did I see myself becoming addicted to Gilmore Girls, let alone writing for the fandom! But then I learned it had Baby-Padalecki. Baby-Moose. And I had too. Even if Baby-Moose from Gilmore isn't Baby-Moose anymore, because BABY-MOOSE HAS A BABY.**

**Anyways,**

**If Gilmore was mine, Dean would never have gone. Jess would have gotten hit by a bus. Logan would've never existed, and don't even get me started on Lindsay.**

**Suggested Listening: Water From The Moon – Celine Dion, Zero Gravity – Kerli. **

Do I gotta get water from the moon

Is that what I gotta do

To make you love me

Make you love me

Do I gotta turn the sand into the sea

Is that what you want from me

I've done everything that I can do

But get water from the moon

After dating Rory Gilmore three separate times, Dean thought his chances of being surprised were fairly slim. Hell, he'd go as far as to say VERY slim. He should be able to predict what would happen. She graduated Yale, and left on the campaign trail with Obama. She would now go on to make a very big name for herself in journalism, marry that Logan guy, and never think of the likes of him again.

The fact that he could be wrong had never even crossed his mind. This was Rory. This is what Rory would do, and he would simply have to get over it. That was that. He'd accepted it. He didn't necessarily LIKE it, but he'd accepted it. Well, maybe "accepted" was too strong of a word. He tolerated it. He built a bridge and got over it. He would always love Rory Gilmore, but she would never love him. Old news.

But then there she was, standing outside of Luke's with her mother, laughing, wearing a jean skirt and a blue tank top that made her eyes look like neon lights, despite how far away he was standing. She had let her hair grow back out, and had fallen back into the habit of French braiding it to keep it out of her face.

She looked good. And grown up. And not at all the naïve, little girl he'd fallen in love with when he had been seventeen. Not like the almost-woman he had thrown his marriage away for. No, she was different. Something about her had changed, he just couldn't pinpoint what.

And then she looked over at him, eyes widening slightly before she turned back to her mother. Lorelai looked over in his direction and he quickly became totally enraptured with the signs on Doose's market advertising sales.

The next time he chanced a look in the Gilmore's direction, Rory was already halfway to him, shining smile in place, hand raised in a wave. Had he not looked over, he may have been able to make a clean get-away, but he'd seen her, and she had seen him see her. He'd tried ignoring her once before, and it ended in her finding him, demanding answers, and an almost-kiss.

"Dean!"

He had to force a smile, and meet her bright eyes. "Rory. You're back."

She nodded, still smiling at him like he was her favorite person in the world. A few years ago, he may have believed that smile. "Yeah… I was living up in Washington, I worked for the post, but then I got fired for slapping a guy who grabbed my butt…" _Insert random, unbidden surge of anger, and protectiveness here, _Dean's thoughts grumbled at him. "But apparently I was pretty well known, and now I have a job with The Times."

He could believe it. If there was one thing that every inhabitant in Stars Hallow agreed on, it was that Rory Gilmore was going places. "That's great! What brings you home?"

"It's only a two hour drive from here to New York and Mom has decided she won't have me living so close and not with her. She won't charge me rent either, which is huge. I could save up for an actual house instead of a dumpy apartment…" She seemed to be talking to herself, which was such a Rory thing that Dean had to smile. There were some things, things that were few and far between, that would simply never change. "Anyways!" She seemed to remember that someone else was with her, "How have you been?"

Dean blinked and leaned against the window, arms crossing over his chest in a protective reflex he usually reserved for dealing with his mother, horrible old thing that she was. "I've been… surprisingly good. I finished college. Got a degree in Automotive Mechanics. I work over at Gypsy's."

The smile on her face could replace the sun, Dean decided, and no one would notice. She was beaming at him like he had surpassed all expectation and done something so incredible that it could hardly be factual. "Dean! That's amazing. I told you, you could do it."

And that, everyone, was probably as close as Rory Gilmore had ever gotten to an actual "I told you so". "Yeah, yeah you did, Rory. You were pretty much the only one who believed that, actually." His mother was his mother. Lindsey? He won't even open that Pandora's Box. And he really didn't associate with anyone else on a regular basis besides Taylor, and Taylor was… Oblivious if it didn't revolve around him. "You and Clara."

"I knew I liked that kid." Rory smiled. "I actually… I need to go into Doose's… so I'll see you around. Okay?"

Would he let her go? He had the perfect chance to stay with her, to be AROUND her. His Rory who hasn't changed at all, but changed so much. But he didn't think he could take that. Another heartbreak. He'd tried. She'd tried. Three times. And it just seemed like he'd never fit into her world. Never be good enough. Never be what she needed. Never be Logan, or Jess, or a Yale graduate. He'd never keep up with her and her books. Never earn the respect of her grandparents, even if her grandfather no longer outright hated him. Lorelai liked him enough, but she had a solid thing with Luke, who also hated him.

"Yeah. I'll see you Rory." And he walked away. Left her standing there, watching him leave, again. And again she didn't stop him. Again she let him go. And again his heart managed to break just a little more for Rory Gilmore.

XOXO

Rory watched him go, mind reeling. Dean. Dean. Dean. He'd grown up. Well, he'd never exactly been little. He'd been six-foot-two when she'd met him during her Sophomore year, and he'd probably grown since then. But he seemed more mature, world weary, almost sad. Like his eyes were far too old for his age.

He looked good though, but then, Dean had never been hard on the eyes, all big hazel eyes and floppy dark hair that never seemed to stay where he put it. He still wore his leather jacket, but she supposed he wouldn't be Dean without the jacket. And she personally loved it. It was warm, and he always smelled like it…

"Hey, kiddo, does he have Dorian Gray stitched into his back pocket?"

Spacing out randomly was probably a bad thing, Rory decided as she practically jumped a mile at her mother's voice. "Of course not," She muttered absently, watching Dean disappear around the corner before turning to Lorelai, "It was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."

Lorelai raised an eyebrow, smirk playing across her face. "The concentration with which you were ogling that boy's but was Dorian Gray. Far too much to be Jekyll and Hyde."

"How do you know?" Rory asked defensively, "And I wasn't ogling him."

"You've already read Jekyll and Hyde. That was new book level ogling." Lorelai grinned in the mischievous way of hers that Rory had come to know and fear by the age of three. "Now come on, I want coffee and Luke wants to nag at us together so he won't have to say everything twice."

"In other words he denied you."

"Pretty much."

And just like that life was back to normal. After years of being away from home, of being on the move, always somewhere new, or waking up in a lonely, cold, Washington apartment, across the country from everything she knew, she was HOME. And home is where the heart is. After seeing Dean, she could definitely see the truth in that particular cliché.

But she had treated him so badly… First stringing him along with Jess, then stealing him away from Lindsay and ruining his marriage, THEN letting him feel like he wasn't good enough. Again. And finally driving him away from her, for good.

And now she sees him again, years later, almost ten years after she met him, and immediately wants him back? Now that she thought about it, there was a special place in hell reserved for her. She'd be dining with Hitler and Jack the Ripper.

XOXO

The next time Dean saw Rory, the sight was so startlingly familiar he stopped in his tracks and just watched her. She was sitting under a tree, legs crossed, book in her lap, hair hanging in a curtain around her face.

It was like looking into the past, or if he was truly honest, the Mirror of Erised from Harry Potter. Because if he was truthful with himself, the deepest and most desperate desire of his heart, was for everything to be exactly like it was before. Before Jess came into town, before she left for college, before he got with Lindsay, before Logan came into the picture.

Just before in general. When it was just them, and occasionally Lane. When she would grab a bag of Rocky Road cookies, because he liked them, even if she didn't. When he could walk down the street with her, and out of the blue, simply because he felt like it, he could stop, grab her around the waist, and kiss her senseless.

"What are you thinking about?"

When had she moved? How long had he been there, just thinking about what used to be? He guessed it didn't really matter, because she was still there, standing in front of him, book clasped to her chest, looking up at him with those huge blue eyes.

"Whether it's worth it to endure Taylors annoyed looks at my hair to get milk." He lied, though now that he thought about it, that was a really good idea. His fridge was decidedly milk-less right now.

"Why doesn't Taylor like your hair?" Her voice was still so innocent, she still sounded sixteen as she tilted her head in question, expression curious.

"He says it looks like a mop."

Her laugh was musical. Like it was composed by Mozart, or Bach. And it seemed to come from her toes and go all the way up, like her amusement was a full body affair, not like Lindsey's little, fake sounding giggle.

He really needed to stop comparing them.

"It may need a trim…" She said, absently. "But it doesn't look like a mop… Well," She tilted her head to the side again, "from this angle it kind of does."

He snorted and shook his head. "My hair is fine, and if you'll excuse me, I need to force myself to go shopping before I lose motivation."

"Want some company?" She asked, biting her lip and looking nervous for some reason he couldn't fathom.

She was Rory Gilmore. She had no reason to be nervous, ever. She had everything, because she deserved everything. She worked her way through school, dealt with her completely insane (yet utterly loveable) mother, and anal, accusatory, aristocratic grandparents. She had been so busy she barely had time to do anything else. Like see him.

And just like that, he remembered why he was keeping his distance, as much as was possible in a town like Stars Hallow, and how he wasn't good enough, and how she probably still had that Logan kid fawning over her.

Though he wasn't here. And she hadn't mentioned him since they had been talking, despite telling him about her work, and her moving… so maybe… "Where's Logan?" He asked before he could process what he was saying.

There was a moment when he feared he had crossed a line, a moment when she just stared at him, then, "We broke up. He wanted me to marry him. I said no."

He was surprised, and he was sure he looked it. Logan had been so perfect for her. Good looking, rich, approved of, _**worthy**_**. **"Oh." That's what he said. Just "oh". Eloquence, thy name is not Dean Forrester.

"Yeah…" She said, "Hey, you wanna grab a coffee?"

Coffee? With Rory? Coffee with Rory was a date. A date with Rory would lead to a relationship with Rory. A relationship with Rory inevitably meant breaking up with Rory. And breaking up with Rory, again, for the fourth time, would destroy him completely.

"I can't." He said, shoulders tensing. He wasn't lying. He couldn't take another round. He just couldn't.

And for the second time that day, Dean Forrester walked away from Rory Gilmore. And for the second time that day, she let him.

**AN2:/ This was surprisingly fun to write :D Reviews make the tired, PMS-ey teenager happy :D **


	2. Just A Dream

**Review Corner: This is for everyone who left something in their review that I felt the need to comment on or answer. :]**

**TL22: I get why one would see Lindsay as not-so-bad, I mean her husband DID cheat on her, which sucked. But I got SO annoyed with her when she was nagging Dean that I can't dredge up an ounce of sympathy. She got him to leave college and work more because SHE wanted a townhouse and a new car. Then, he's working extra hours to make more money to get her what SHE wants, and she shows up and bitches because SHE wants him to come out with her and her friends. She then calls him selfish. And complains that she's home alone all day waiting for him. Hello. Get a job. Then you'd have more money and Dean would have time to go out with you and maybe even go back to school. **

**And that's my peanuts on the matter. :D But to each their own, honey. **

**And really, if I owned Gilmore, all of this would've happened in the ACTUAL SHOW and fanfiction would be obsolete.**

She was so easy to love,

But I guess that love wasn't enough…

I was thinking about her,

Thinking about me,

Thinking about this,

And who we gonna be.

I open my eyes,

It was only just a dream.

Nelly – Just A Dream

In a perfect world, Dean supposed he would be with Rory right now. He would have always been with Rory. Because he wasn't stupid enough to think he would ever find anyone to replace her. He wouldn't find another person who said thank you when he kissed them, or tried to cheer up Weeping Willows. Rory Gilmore has had his heart since he was sixteen years old, and he doubted he would ever get it back.

He wishes things had turned out differently. That there was never any Jess, that he had made a better impression with her grandparents. He wished that his biggest problem was that she couldn't say she loved him just yet, because the "just yet" meant that she would, at some point, tell him she loved him. And he'd do just about anything to hear Lorelai Leigh Gilmore tell him she loved him again.

But that was a wish, and wishes don't come true for guys like him. Instead, he would just sit back and watch as she integrated herself back into Stars Hallow life effortlessly. Gossiping with Mrs. Patty, bickering with Luke, visiting with Lane and Zach, chasing the twins through the square, quipping back and forth with her mother. It was like she had never left.

And bringing Luke's truck into the shop? That was new. Since when did Luke let people use his truck without a ridiculous amount of begging and possible selling of the soul? Let alone, bring it in to get fixed? But apparently it was making a funky noise and Luke was too busy flirting with Lorelai to bring it in, which left the responsibility to Rory.

"Describe the noise." Dean sighed, making sure to look everywhere except for the gorgeous girl in front of him, because all it took was one look and he was done. Finished. Doomed. Spiraling towards the ground without a parachute, umbrella, or hope for survival.

"Do you remember that first Gilmore Girls Movie Extravaganza?" She asked him. "We watched Willy Wonka and my fridge was being obnoxious?"

"I believe the term used was "yodel", but yes." How could he not? It was their first "date", the day after he asked her if she wanted a pop and then kissed her in the Market. Aisle three, with the ant killer. She had shoplifted corn starch, if he remembered correctly. The beginning of this hectic relationship that he wouldn't trade for the world.

"Yes, well, that is the sound it's making. The stupid truck is yodeling, and my mother keeps screaming "I'm too young die" and demanding we hold her every time Luke comes to pick her up." He had to look up, just to see if she was kidding. The fondly amused look on her face informed him that her mother was actually as insane as he thought she was.

"Well, we can't have that." He sighed. "Pop the hood?" He got a blank look. "Open the driver's side door. Under the dash there should be a lever or something with the picture of a car with an open hood on it. Pull it."

"Now you're speaking English." She smiled at him, with that certified Rory smile that still managed to take is breath away and make his chest ache.

Dean winced and buried himself in the engine, trying to block her out, fix the damn truck, and get her the hell out of the shop. This was his place, where he did what he loved to do without the interference of having Rory Gilmore on his mind constantly.

"So what's the verdict?" She asked, and she was standing right behind him. He knew it. He could _smell _her. She smelled like vanilla and sunshine, with maybe the barest hint of cotton candy from that body spray her mom had found on sale and given to her (Rory had promptly fallen in love with it and now always had some on hand).

"The verdict is that I need to order the part." He stood back up and wiped his greasy hands on his coveralls. "I won't bother you with the details, you won't understand me anyways, and then you'll promptly forget it."

She laughed, pushing some of her hair behind her ear, "You still know me."

Dean shot her a small smile in return, not wanting to seem rude. "I remember trying to explain cars to you."

"'Trying' being the key word in that sentence." Rory grumbled, looking at her hands briefly before making a surprised "oh!" sound and turning to dig through her purse. She pulled out a plastic bag filled with cookies and held out to him. "Sookie had some cookies left over from the dinner spread at the Dragonfly last night." She explained as he took them. "Rocky Road."

Dean looked from the cookies, to her, and back again. "Uh… Thanks, Rory."

She nodded, shifting from foot to foot nervously; he still couldn't quite figure out why she was nervous. "No problem. You like them so… It's better than them going to waste."

"No one else in the entire town likes Rocky Road cookies?" Dean asked before he could stop himself, and he cursed in his head. Stupid lack of brain-to-mouth-filter whenever Rory Gilmore was involved.

Rory shrugged. "You were the first person I thought of." She mumbled, looking up at him with big eyes. "So I brought them to you. They're filed in my head as "Dean Cookies" anyways."

He sighed and tightened his grip on the bag. "Well, thank you. I appreciate it…" He cursed himself for letting things get so awkward between them. He used to be able to tell Rory anything, his hopes, dreams, what was "eating him" when he was in a mood. He could talk to her French fries in a fairly public setting without an ounce of shame, because those fries were very unhappy and apparently if he didn't make them happy they would give her a stomach ache.

But now he couldn't even have a three minute conversation about cookies with her without feeling like he was trying to have the "talk" with his grandfather. His gay grandfather. Who kept trying to switch to HIS version of the talk, involving flavored lube and toys. And now it's time to slam the door on that train of thought. That tears it. From now on he would send Kirk to Gypsy whenever he came in. He couldn't take any more of his, quite frankly, terrifying stories.

"Not a problem." She clasped her hands in front of her, chewing on her bottom lip like she had something else to say, but didn't know how to phrase it. "So um… yeah. I was actually thinking of getting my own apartment… My mother is amazing and all, but I'm twenty seven… It feels a little pathetic. Plus, she keeps bringing Luke home. It's disturbing." Her face pinched in the most comical expression of disgust he'd ever seen.

And he could see why. The image of Luke and Lorelai was scarring at best, and he wasn't even related to either of them. "Thank you for that image, Rory. Really. I needed that in my head." Finally, a little normalcy. Teasing her he could handle. He was proficient in the art of teasing Rory until she pelted him with Skittles.

"I didn't want to be the only one grossed out." She shrugged, smiling at him again. "Hey, what are you doing later?"

Nothing. "I'm not sure. Why?" Please don't let her ask him out. He would die. Completely. His heart would stop and he would keel over and just die.

"I thought you could swing by the house, and we could catch up… Mom and Luke have a date." She sounded so nonchalant that for anyone who didn't know better, it would just be that. A time to catch up. But he knew her. He knew her nervous ticks. The way that she kept her eyes away from his, how her hands were clasped, thumbs twitching against each other…

She wanted whatever this awkwardness between them was to go away. She was offering out her hand for him to take, so they could work through it and get somewhere closer to what they had been. The dynamic due, who complemented each other, and understood what the other was trying to say, even if they went about it in an entirely off subject, insane way.

"Rory…" He sighed, "I don't know… I…" He couldn't take it again.

"I'll cook." She pleaded, pouting her lips at him and bringing out her best puppy eyes, the ones he's never been able to say no to.

"You cook?" When had that started happening? Last time he checked she and her mother stored shoes in their oven.

"I lived on my own, across the country." She reminded him, "I couldn't live off of Television Dinners forever. I've become a fairly decent cook."

He was going to regret this decision for the rest of his life, he knew it. But nevertheless, his mouth opened, and the word "Okay" tumbled from between his lips. He's a damn idiot.

XOXO

Her house was exactly the way he'd remembered it. Dean sighed, steeled himself for an insanely awkward evening, filled with "Break The Ice" tactics, and observations he didn't need to make. Like how cute it was that she was cooking for him, how much it reminded him of Donna Reed night. As he knocked, he almost expected her to answer the door in an orange dress with an outrageous circumference, and pearls.

She didn't answer the door at all, simply screamed, "It's open!" over the song she was blaring.

He opened the door and walked in, frowning at how completely unsafe that was. She had lived in the big city, did she always just scream "It's open!" and leave it at that? What if he had been someone else? A murderer? A rapist? Taylor (almost as bad)? She could have been killed or worse!

All thoughts of telling her off however, flew out the door the second he found her in the kitchen. She was barefoot, dancing, sprinkling cheese onto what looked like Italian bread sliced in half long-ways. He hadn't seen this side of her often, even when they'd been dating. She had so much on her shoulders, school, Harvard, more school, all those weird activities Taylor conned her into doing (Ice Cream Queen? Really?), keeping her mother from accidentally killing herself with her schemes, more school, Paris, and once again, school.

They had their times, their shenanigans, but never quite like this. She looked at him over her shoulder, shooting him a smile. "Is pizza okay? It's just bread with sauce, cheese, and everything else I happen to be hiding in my fridge. But it's amazing, I swear."

She could cook. She was Rory Gilmore, and suddenly she was cooking. It was insane. "Is there anything you can't do?"

She spared him a look as she put the pan in the oven, leaving the door open slightly. "Albert Einstein said that everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish on how well he can climb a tree he will forever believe he is stupid." She turned to face him, leaning against the counter. "Same goes for you."

"What does? The Einstein thing?" She was now officially speaking Gibberish.

"Everything that happened between us. That quote brought it to mind. You thought you weren't good enough, that you didn't fit into "my" world. Well, first of all, that wasn't MY world. That was my grandmother's world, that I occasionally had to be a part of. But this is that you KNOW, Dean. The mechanics, it's your niche. You're perfect at what you do, but if you try to be a part of something you're not you'll feel stupid."

He tried to connect everything that came out of her mouth, and almost ended up with a headache, "I beg you to make that make sense." He gave her the benefit of the doubt and tried one more time, earned himself a throb somewhere around his left temple for his trouble.

"I mean… you said you didn't fit in in "my" world… But that world is the tree to your fish."

"I realized that somewhere between you being late and me getting into my car and driving away." That came out a lot harsher than he had originally intended. The look on her face said it all. "Oh God… Rory I didn't mean it…"

"N-no it's fine." Her smile was so obviously fake. "So um… Did I ever tell you about the time that my mother wore a T-shirt with a rhinestone penis on it to Friday night dinner?"

Dean visibly relaxed, sitting at the kitchen table and folding his arms across the top. "No, but I'm pretty sure I'd pay to hear the outcome of this."

Rory giggled. "She had the car TOWED!"

Dean fell into hysterics and the awkwardness of the evening began to dissipate. He remembered the countless nights sitting at the table, laughing this hard over some anecdote, eating something completely unhealthy, while Lorelai set up some movie in the living room.

It was completely normal, and he kind of loved it.


End file.
